Overview:
The Agricultural Education office has administered a chick hatch program in Nova Scotia in cooperation with the Agricultural Awareness Committee for over 15 years. The program has been well subscribed by elementary school classrooms. These guidelines have been developed to focus the program to best fit within the educational mandate of the Agricultural Awareness Program.
Objective:
To provide a “hands-on” activity to elementary school children which is appropriate in terms of human and animal health & welfare, and provides information which improves the understanding and appreciation for agriculture in Nova Scotia.
Target audience:
Almost all audiences enjoy watching the hatching process and activity of young chicks. Some venues, however, are not appropriate for delivering on the objective, either because safety measures cannot be consistently met, or the audience is not appropriate for the educational component of the program. For this reason, the use of hatch kits in this program is intended for school classrooms - grades 2 - 6.
Teacher Training:
Experienced teachers may book the kits without training, but new bookings require a visit by an experienced handler. This will help keep the focus on the educational objectives of the program and re-enforce the biosafety requirements.
Kit Components:
The chick hatch kit consists of a table top incubator, hatch kit with brooder light, feeder, waterer, candling light, educational posters and videos and a chick hatch program guide book with instructions, suggested activities and learning outcomes.
Kit bookings:
The program runs from March 19 - June 8, 2012. Kits must be booked well in advance of the intended use date and returned promptly upon completion of the hatch. Generally, four weeks are required to complete the hatch project and kits are booked on a first-come, first-served basis.
When completing an application for booking through the central Agricultural Awareness office, please select a first and second choice of option from the following schedule:
Option |
Kit delivery (# delivered) |
Pick-up date |
1 |
March 20 (5) |
April 17 |
2 |
March 27 (5) |
April 24 |
3 |
May 1 (4) |
May 29 |
4 |
May 2 (3) |
May 30 |
5 |
May 8 (3) |
June 5 |
PLEASE NOTE: The program is fully subscribed for 2012. No more applications are being accepted at this time.
Click here for kit locations and guidelines
Click here for a chick hatch application form
Completed forms should be faxed to:
Rick Hoeg, Agricultural Education Liaison
ph: 902-893-7495
fax: 902-893-0244
email: hoegrl@gov.ns.ca
Click here for the Chick Hatch program guidebook.
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